Caramel Cupcakes

I was on the hunt for a great caramel cake recipe.
Good caramel cake recipes are hard to come up with!
But one day I was rummaging around and wrote down a recipe that looked amazing, however I didn't write down the site for reference, and for that I am sorry! But whomever came up with this particular caramel cake recipe is genius. The ingredient that I feel is "top secret" that brings out the awesome flavor has to be the molasses. Seriously, I never thought of adding that to caramel cake before, which is crazy on my part because the color, the flavor, and everything about it is a perfect compliment to it.
You could top these with several different types of frosting; dulce de leche, salted caramel frosting, chocolate ganache (mmm) but I just chose a simple caramel frosting using heavy cream and candy caramel bits. You could also fill this cupcake with a caramel sauce to go really wild!
The cake is moist, the flavors are awesome. It is very satisfying!

Caramel Cupcakes

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

4 eggs

1 tablespoon molasses

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup milk (I used 2%)

3 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350°

Prepare muffin tin to bake 30-32 cupcakes with liners or grease well

In a large mixing bowl sift together dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a stand mixer cream together butter, sugars, eggs, molasses and vanilla.

Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture 1/3 at a time, adding the cream, oil and milk in an alternating fashion until all ingredients have been added and batter is well combined.

Scoop 1/4 cup of the batter into each muffin cup.

Bake for 14-16 minutes or until edges are golden brown. 

Remove each cupcake to a cooling rack.

Caramel Frosting

1 cup caramel baking bits; or unwrapped caramels

1/4 cup heavy cream

1 cup butter, room temperature

4-5 cups powdered sugar

Place the caramels and heavy cream in a saucepan over medium heat.

Heat, stirring constantly until caramels are smooth.

Remove from heat and let cool slightly. 

Add caramel sauce to the butter and cream together.

Add powdered sugar slowly, mixing well until desired consistency is reached.

Pipe over cooled cupcakes.